A client surprised – and thrilled – the Poncho team recently when they asked: how can I help you make my eLearning design and development project a success?
You see, there are hundreds of things an expert eLearning development company will do to make sure your project succeeds, but in our experience, the client’s role is just as critical.Â
Making sure you choose the right partner – someone who is easy to work with and experienced in delivering exceptional eLearning – is an important part of the equation.
But eLearning development companies offer unique skills, and it’s also important to know how to work effectively with us to get the most out of our expertise.Â
Whether you’re engaging an eLearning development company for the first time, or looking to improve your ways of working with a current partner, here are six things you can do to make sure the relationship is effective and that your bespoke eLearning development projects produce exceptional results.Â
1. Prepare and Share
It can be hard to know what to bring to the table to kick off a bespoke eLearning development project, especially when you’re briefing a partner for the first time.
Our tip: prepare and share as much of your existing training content and organisational information as possible – even if you’re not sure it’s directly relevant to your brief.
Sharing your existing training materials and the approaches you’ve previously adopted to achieve your learning outcomes will provide valuable context and insights into your needs and challenges.
Providing knowledge about your organisation is the easiest way to have your eLearning development company understand your culture and environment and rapidly get them up to speed and functioning as a true extension of your training team.
While it’s by no means essential, we also find great outcomes are quickly achieved when clients take time to research eLearning module development approaches and understand the many options available for creating engaging, memorable and effective custom eLearning content.
2. Make time to understand the eLearning design and development process
Every eLearning development company will have its own process for scheduling and managing eLearning design and development projects. But regardless of the approach, all parties involved will have an important role to perform.
In our experience, the best bespoke eLearning development project outcomes are achieved when everyone’s roles and responsibilities are well defined.
While you don’t need to become an eLearning design and development process expert, it’s important you understand the stages and what’s required for you to develop, review, approve, test and launch your project to make it a success.
3. Nominate an eLearning Module Development project lead
It’s essential to appoint a dedicated project lead to match your eLearning development company’s eLearning consultant and make sure all communications are directed through this point person.
Having one dedicated contact ensures important communications are never missed – it’s easy for requests for information to go astray when a project has multiple people communicating with your eLearning consultant. Trust us – everyone will assume someone else has it handled when things are busy!
Having several people providing feedback on your custom eLearning content individually is also a recipe for disaster. One person consolidating and sharing everyone’s feedback will make sure your direction is crystal clear.
4. Communicate effectively and honestly
Productive and effective relationships – and exceptional bespoke eLearning development project outcomes – are built on healthy communication.
We know every organisation and individual is different when it comes to communication preferences, so it’s important to establish expectations from the outset.
Agree on how you’ll communicate, how frequently you’ll communicate, and how long it should take to respond to communications.
Committing to being transparent and open throughout the process is also important. Whether it’s communicating the budget you have available, the timeframe you realistically need to secure feedback and approvals, or providing constructive feedback – communicating honestly will always save time and budget and avoid frustration.
5. Provide clear, actionable feedback
Your eLearning development company wants to create amazing custom eLearning content that meets your brief, so it’s essential you let them know when something is not meeting your expectations and why.
It’s always best to provide feedback in writing, so there’s no room for misinterpretation.
It also helps to avoid going into solutions mode – your eLearning development company is the expert and will know how to solve your challenges.
6. Stay open to new ideas on how to present your custom eLearning content
Technology changes rapidly, especially in the bespoke eLearning development industry. To stay ahead of the curve and create unique custom eLearning content, you must embrace innovation.
There has never been a better time to create amazing eLearning experiences, thanks to the always-evolving tools and techniques available.Â
To get the most value out of your partnership with your eLearning development company, keep an open mind to new methods and approaches to solve your training challenges by creating super engaging, fun and memorable custom eLearning content.Â
We’ll say it again: choosing the right partner plays a big part in achieving exceptional results with your bespoke eLearning development projects.
But when you invest time in ensuring you’re engaging effectively with your eLearning development company, you’ll be on the fast track to producing exceptional results.
Interesting to learn more about what it’s like to work with the expert Poncho team?Â
Book a call to discover how we can help with your next bespoke eLearning development project.